Book info

• Title Killer's Choice
• Author Ed McBain
• Year 1957
• Genre Mystery

Annie Boone is dead. She was shot four times in the chest, pieces of the liquor store’s windows spread over her body like raindrops from a lethal storm. For 87th Precinct Detectives Carella, Kling, and newcomer Hawes, even more troubling is the loss of one of their own. Detective Roger Havilland is murdered shortly thereafter, a shard of glass through his jugular. Faced with a host of suspects—from Annie’s former mother-in-law to her ex-husband, employer, and a string of boyfriends—the detectives find themselves with a victim whose identity spurns all conventional definition. She was the store’s saleswoman…as well as a divorced mother, pool shark, society lady, drunk, and patron of the ballet. Each facet of her life has a corresponding potential suspect. The only way for Carella and the men to find her killer—and maybe that of Havilland, too—is to find out who she really was. The problem is, the only one who really knew her died in a shower of glass.

Thoughts

Another edition in the 87th Precinct series and this time we’ve got a murder taking place with several suspects but no clear evidence to support any of their cases. They all have alibis but one of them must have done it! There’s also the death of one of the squad members to deal with, with surprisingly little of the private lives of the officers in the story this time.

I’m still really enjoying these books though, they’re such short and simple reads, a quick dip into the grimy but ultimately worthy world of the 87th, as the cast of characters grows and changes and the cases are solved by hard work, a little bit of luck and plenty of detective skills.

Rating: 3 / 5